Story as Legacy Workshop
In this final iteration of our November Story/Arts residency program, artist-in-residence Meta Commerse will lead a workshop rooted in ways to break the silence of oppressive traumas through the transformative power of storytelling and story sharing.
*No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Meta Commerse Presents: "Story as Legacy" workshop
Workshop held from 7-9pm
Parking and Policies
Please pay what you can! Your generosity goes to underwrite our Story/Arts residency program which champions BIPOC, LGTBQIA+, and individuals from other historically marginalized communities by providing a platform for their work, an artist stipend, coaching opportunities, community support, and more.
In this workshop, artist-in-residence Meta Commerse will lead participants in the quest to explore the impact of religious, economic, gender, and racial oppression on the development of the self, community, and nation.
Through her pioneering work with Story Medicine, Meta has recognized these forms of oppression are linked, and can be seen as a unit comprising one pervasive system. The basis of this awareness is derived from the luminous teaching of bell hooks in which she repeatedly named and described the “white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchy” as root basis of our human problem.
Story medicine offers a way to break the silence of trauma that has held it in place and immovable for centuries. With our stories, we are equipped to construct an empowered response to oppression. With story, elders can create a volume of work from our lived experience that illuminates and demonstrates the effects of systemic oppression on our individual, communal and national health while breaking its hold.
Therefore, Story as Legacy, through presentation and dialogue, is a means of appreciating and tapping the power of story, making meaning from this collective memory, this storehouse of lived experience and planted resource that each of us carries but have not recognized. With intention, our unique position as elders invokes a new dawn: an awakening of this resource belonging to each and all of us; we begin standing together at last to resist a pervasive system; we create a miraculous medicine; and, we make this religious, economic, gender, and racial healing available to future generations.
While there is a focus on the legacy of elders, all are welcome to participate.
Please also bring one or two pens and writing paper.
Meta’s Story/Arts Residency Offerings:
Thursday, November 3 | “Romance, Jingles, and Dreams” performance at Story Parlor
Thursday, November 10 | Writing Out of Pain: Memoirs by WNC Authors Lecture and Book Discussion Series at West Asheville Library
Thursday, November 17 | “Story as Legacy” workshop at Story Parlor
Read excerpts from the “Romance, Jingles, and Dreams” talk-back here!
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Meta Commerse is a word medicine woman black boomer whose spiritual/artistic home is rooted in stories and poems. As a girl, she began writing poems seeking an expressive outlet, emulating her grandmother and mother. Meta is author of five books and founder and CEO of Story Medicine Worldwide, based here in Asheville. She earned her graduate education at Goddard College in Vermont. She taught school from K-12, then in higher ed for a total of 20 years. For the past 30 years, she has planted her story medicine in communities through healing experiences designed to awaken and inspire her students. She is the mother of three children and grandmother to three grandsons.
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Story Parlor’s residencies exist to champion the creative work of locally-based artists and art groups hailing from BIPOC, LGTBQIA+, and other historically marginalized communities in the quest to amplify and bridge together the diverse fabric of voices in Asheville.
Specifically, the Story/Arts residency aims to provide a platform that showcases the transformative and healing powers of storytelling through all art mediums, while tending to the core values of Story Parlor’s mission, which include:
• Connecting audiences and artists from varying creative backgrounds and interests
• Informing, inspiring, and invigorating through the arts
• Promoting and fostering self-inquiry and mindfulness
• Cultivating creative exchange and cultural insight
• Fostering authenticity and inclusiveness
In addition to public performances and/or workshops, artists-in-residence receive dedicated rehearsal time in the space; an artist stipend; creativity coaching sessions; marketing and promotion; and more.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, with preference given to applicants who cross disciplines, embrace collaboration, and present a residency proposal that embodies the core elements of storytelling through all art forms. More info can be found here.
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Story Parlor is a cooperative arts venue featuring storytelling and the exploration of the human condition through community-driven programming. Committed to impacting positive change through the transformative power of storytelling through all art mediums, Story Parlor champions the narrative artists of Western North Carolina through events, classes, community building, and advocacy.
We are all creative, and we all have a story to tell, and Story Parlor exists to bridge these two universal truths together. Dedicated to cultivating an environment that nurtures expression, experience, and mindfulness, Story Parlor is unwavering in its investigation of identity, culture, and humanity.